If you're banking on the strength of the story and the characters in a Level 5 game to make up for middling gameplay then you're making a sucker's bet. Honestly, I'll be genuinely surprised if this game doesn't feel like it was written by a 12-year old who's mother abandonment issues and lack of any sort of sex education dominate the choices used to fill out his disjointed narrative cobbled together from a mad-lib of random plot points.

Why you always gotta be so negative?

Yeaah. Dunno when Level 5 had a game with excellent characters...

Anyways:

+ Pretty good battle system, simple, but to the point+ That score!!! Auuugh, great music~!+ Background graphics+ World Map graphics+ Though they really only mentioned it for a minute of gameplay, I did like using magics to help that miserable guard or whatever. I smell some good sidequest potential+ I miss high-fantasy games. D: So yay! May get it just on that

+/- The mascot. I dunno if I find his cockney accent and design to be darling or annoying.

- Character models are "meh". Higher poly or just... I dunno, they're really simple looking, look odd amongst the scenery which is near flawless. A bit more detail would have been swell anyways. I realize even Ghibli designs aren't too expansive, but if there was any time it wouldn't have hurt it'd have been on a videogame- Boss "super attacks" don't stand out too well, but even when I do...- ...the battle controls are kind of sticky. Dunno how crazy I am about running with the control stick then selecting options with the d-pad... (being an active-time battle system, I suspect running, stopping, and picking is a good suggestion).- Story line is...? It sounds sweet enough (the bit with the dead mum), so I'm curious how involving the plot will be otherwise. But between Ghib/Lvl5? I expect creativity if nothing else.

If you're banking on the strength of the story and the characters in a Level 5 game to make up for middling gameplay then you're making a sucker's bet. Honestly, I'll be genuinely surprised if this game doesn't feel like it was written by a 12-year old who's mother abandonment issues and lack of any sort of sex education dominate the choices used to fill out his disjointed narrative cobbled together from a mad-lib of random plot points.

Why you always gotta be so negative?

Tis the season, I suppose.

But seriously, have you SEEN their track record? Gundam AGE alone should be reason enough never to trust them again or even trust that even the amounts of executive meddling that companies like Sunrise tend to indulge in can reign in their awful writing.

To me they're right in between Squeenix and Crapcom in terms of the quality of treatment it demonstrates between themselves, their franchises, and their fan bases (in Japan; otherwise folks like Zynga, EA, and Actiblizzvision would be mixed in there among others).

But seriously, have you SEEN their track record? Gundam AGE alone should be reason enough never to trust them again or even trust that even the amounts of executive meddling that companies like Sunrise tend to indulge in can reign in their awful writing.

To me they're right in between Squeenix and Crapcom in terms of the quality of treatment it demonstrates between themselves, their franchises, and their fan bases (in Japan; otherwise folks like Zynga, EA, and Actiblizzvision would be mixed in there among others).

I'm not really defending Level-5 (never been a big fan anyway), but I still think your original post was over-the-top. Not to mention that Ghibli is involved here and they're quite good at what they do. I don't actually know who did the writing, but what little I've seen is at least competent. But it's hard to really judge from snippets.

And I didn't watch Gundam AGE because I'm not a masochist so I have no comment there...

It's not a reflection on the game but as a demo itself, it's terrible.

It throws you in with no explanation of the battle system. I kept switching back and forth between my character and my summon thingie and I wasn't sure which one I was meant to use.

A good demo should teach you the basics of the game and then give you a boss, not throw you to the lions.

It also sucked that the instructional menu item you get after beating that semi boss takes almost 15 minutes to read through, coupled with the 5-6 minutes of boss fight if you're unfamiliar with the game ( everyone probably was), leaving you with 4-5 minutes to actually go through the demo. Most people don't like to replay demos, so if you're not into it yet, 5 minutes of actual play in the demo sours the experience quickly.

It also sucked that the instructional menu item you get after beating that semi boss takes almost 15 minutes to read through, coupled with the 5-6 minutes of boss fight if you're unfamiliar with the game ( everyone probably was), leaving you with 4-5 minutes to actually go through the demo. Most people don't like to replay demos, so if you're not into it yet, 5 minutes of actual play in the demo sours the experience quickly.

I just thought it was weird that they didn't give you the instructional menu until *after* the battle.

It also sucked that the instructional menu item you get after beating that semi boss takes almost 15 minutes to read through, coupled with the 5-6 minutes of boss fight if you're unfamiliar with the game ( everyone probably was), leaving you with 4-5 minutes to actually go through the demo. Most people don't like to replay demos, so if you're not into it yet, 5 minutes of actual play in the demo sours the experience quickly.

I just thought it was weird that they didn't give you the instructional menu until *after* the battle.

I would have liked one normal battle before being thrust into a boss fight in the forest chapter (I died at the boss, I didn't realize Oliver was linked to the monster's HP...yeah). But the game was pretty easy to figure out otherwise. I'm one of the worst gamers these days, I'll leave the game running and watch a TV show or movie (usually doing both at the same time), or reading an email or looking at the net and I still had time to beat the demo.

I had barely beat the guardian, myself. After the pixie thing said I should defend the major attack, I ended up getting hit by his bellow attack which paralyzed me. So I started spamming the heal spell til he used that special attack again, which I defended against this time. Then I noticed the little orbs everywhere and started picking them up, which made everything easier.

I still look forward to this game's release, but the demo was just balls.

It also sucked that the instructional menu item you get after beating that semi boss takes almost 15 minutes to read through, coupled with the 5-6 minutes of boss fight if you're unfamiliar with the game ( everyone probably was), leaving you with 4-5 minutes to actually go through the demo. Most people don't like to replay demos, so if you're not into it yet, 5 minutes of actual play in the demo sours the experience quickly.

I just thought it was weird that they didn't give you the instructional menu until *after* the battle.

I would have liked one normal battle before being thrust into a boss fight in the forest chapter (I died at the boss, I didn't realize Oliver was linked to the monster's HP...yeah). But the game was pretty easy to figure out otherwise. I'm one of the worst gamers these days, I'll leave the game running and watch a TV show or movie (usually doing both at the same time), or reading an email or looking at the net and I still had time to beat the demo.

If it's not obvious you can go in and play the other level after the time runs out on the 1st.

I had fun with this. Looks wonderful, good music, and a battle system that looks to start out basic and get more complex. I'm not sure about the story and other gameplay aspects but this does look promising.